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  Average Rating for Dream Boy [2008] - 1 out of 5

  
  (based on 1 user reviews)
• Dream Boy [2008]

  Barnaby Walter 30 August 2009

  

  The "helping-a-friend-with-school-work" story always makes me a bit wary. When two friends help each other with "extra-curricular-studies" in movies, this normally means an excuse for repeated scenes of gratuitous sex. In Dream Boy, a rather clichéd independent film from James Bolton, two teenagers in Louisiana - Nathan and Roy - fall in love during their algebra coaching sessions after school. Nathan is the new boy in town, and is finding it hard to settle in due to his mother's nerves (she's near tears in almost every appearance) and unpredictable father. But when dashing farm boy Roy comes into their lives, driving the school bus and then helping out with maths revision, Nathan's spirits pick up.
  
  But after just one algebra session you get the feeling that sex is just around the corner. It is, and it's a shame the film couldn't pay more attention to the blossoming friendship between the two boys instead of shortcutting to the body-action. But after the love-making, things get a more than a little dark. We start to learn about Nathan's history of sexual abuse at the hands of his father (the reasons for his mother's constant state of upset) and when the boys go on a camping trip with two other school friends, things take a devastating turn. The sweet, almost naive nature of the narrative switches quickly into something far more disturbing.
  
  But anything gritty or remotely hard-hitting doesn't last for long, mostly because the nauseatingly twee and sentimental synthesised score which seems to be on a constant loop throughout. Moments of potential tension or human emotion are robbed of any lasting impact due to overzealous efforts to make the story into some sort of modern day fable or coming-of-age-yarn. In the end this demeans what little integrity the script originally possessed. This is a boy-next-door story which manages, just about, to offer two character studies in varying degrees of competence. Just don't expect the level of quality to reach anywhere near the likes of Brokeback Mountain.
  

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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Nathan and his family move to the sweltering bayous of the rural South to start a new life. When he meets charismatic next-door neighbour Roy, the pair strike up a friendship as school study partners, a close bond that soon evolves into a series of passionate after-school encounters. Try as they might, the boys are unable to keep their love for one another a secret from those around them, and as tensions escalate, Nathan confronts the demons of his past, while Roy must make the ultimate sacrifice. A page to screen adaptation of the award-winning best-seller novel by Jim Grimsley, 'Dream Boy' is a sensitive depiction of a love affair between two high-school boys who, despite the odds and tragic circumstance, are destined to be together. Actors Max Roeg, Stephan Bender, Diana Scarwid & Thomas Jay Ryan Certificate 15 years and over Languages English Duration 1 hour and 30 minutes (approx)

Romantic drama set in rural Louisiana in the late 1970s, based on the novel by Jim Grimsley. When the introverted Nathan (Stephan Bender) moves into town with his violent and abusive family, he becomes attracted to his slightly older neighbour, Roy (Maximillian Roeg). A physical relationship quickly develops between the two, who must then do everything they can to hide their attachment from the prying eyes of the deeply religious community around them.